A New Breed of Gamer
by Rilos the Dunmer
Summary: Ryan and Tyler, best friends and the fiercest of warrior teams (In game at least) finally get their covetted copies of the Sword Art Online North American Edition. But even a team of skilled warriors can be brought to their knees if approached by a Flock.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: First off, Thanks to anybody who reads this. Second, THIS IS NOT DONE! I'm still working on this chapter. But I posted it early to see what kind of reaction it would get. So, please review. If it sucks, let me know what's wrong. If I'm a terrible author, let me know what I can do better. Thanks again for reading. Now! To the story!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Sword Art Online or any of the characters therein. I also do not own Maximum Ride or any of those characters. I do however own MY characters. **

**REUPDATE: Oh, and I changed the last bit of this chapter. Plot things. Worry not, little ones. This story has a plan.**

**UPDATE 2: The second chapter has been posted, and I am working on Chapter 3...I'm gonna stop posting updates on this chapter though...BYE FOR NOW!**

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CHAPTER ONE: SAO RELEASE

"Come on Tyler! Drive faster! We gotta make it to the midnight release! I preordered this game over a year ago," my best friend rolled his hazel eyes at me, glancing in my direction for a split second before returning his eyes to the road.

"Ryan. I will not drive over the speed limit. Now shut up and calm down, we will be there in a few minutes," I could tell he was excited as well; Sword Art Online was going to be our first real full dive experience together. We both previously purchased a NerveGear just nights before, preparing ourselves mentally and setting up the machine before the game launched so we could jump in as soon as possible. A few minutes passed as I gazed out of my window at the morning light, glaring down on the passing trees. We were on our way back from a camping trip with my family in Arkansas and we had left early in Tyler's small, silver Mazda Coupe to make it back in St. Louis by 10am.

"Hey...Tyler?" he 'hm'd' in response, "Have you thought about what it's going to be like? I mean, we are one of only ten thousand people in North America to even have this game...isn't that crazy?" Then I had a sudden, worried thought, "Wait! Won't most of the population be Japanese?! They won't be able to understand us, and vise-versa! What are we going to do?! This is gonna-" Tyler cut me off with another quick glance.

"They aren't stupid, Ryan," referring to the game creators, "There will be a translation software built into the game. They might speak Japanese, and we may speak English, but we will each hear and understand our respective languages." His tone was not 'all-knowing' or irritated, simply teaching. One of the many things that made Tyler so likable was that he very rarely looked down on people. He saw every moment of ignorance as a teaching moment. "Oh, hey look; St. Louis in 30 miles, we are almost there." He had said that in an attempt to calm my jitters...it failed and did just the opposite. I was simply too excited!

My mind began to race through all of the things I had previously studied about for Sword Art:

_It's played via NerveGear and is one of the first full dive games released in America. This means that instead of simply seeing and hearing the game, you are fully immersed in the game. Taste, touch, sound, sight, and smell. All of your senses are receiving data from the NerveGear, which blocks the signals from your brain. If you were to move your arm, your actual body would simply lie still. Your avatar in game, however...well, its arm would move. _

_Sword Art Online is a more medieval type of game, with swords, staves, axes and the like. This means that the majority of combat in SAO will be at a close to medium range. Unless of course one becomes talented in a knife throwing skill. This could create a problem for me, as I am usually a DPS player and prefer to stay back and snipe or fire off a bow. But it's not like Tyler and I have ever encountered a problem we couldn't solve._"Ryan...we are here...are you dead?" Tyler's voice slowly creeped its way into my consciousness, snapping me out of my pondering. I blinked, looking around.

"Where are we?" I asked, slightly confused. I guess I had fallen asleep without noticing. Tyler smacked the back of my head, causing a small cry of pain from me.

"Hey! What was that for?!"

"Gamestop, bro! We are here, and if you don't get out of the car, we won't get the game till afternoon!" Tyler's broad figure was to the right of me, where the door usually was. I reached down to undo the buckle of my seatbelt. But before I could even pull the seatbelt off, Tyler was pulling me out of the car by my arm and dragging me across the parking lot.

Once I pulled my arm free and regained my bearings, I glanced around, surveying my surroundings. Gamestop was directly in front of us, about a hundred or so yards away, and our local shopping center was at our six. The line in front of Gamestop was only about five people long, after all, only a certain number of people actually got this game...I don't know what our rush really was, it wasn't like people were gonna get in our way...

We took our place at the back of the line, and I heard a mumble from behind me. Immediately I jerk my whole body around, getting myself into a low fighting stance, I didn't like this particular surprise.

"Who's there?!" I stated in a firm, yet not overly loud voice. Tyler turned to face me, confused, asking me what was going on. After shushing him, I repeated my question to the mysterious voice.

"Calm down, I'm not here to hurt you," an older man walked out of the shadow. He was moderately tall, brownish blond hair and stood in a posture that I would use when consoling an animal or a small child, which wasn't really all that surprising as he was wearing a white lab coat and held small notebook in his hands. "I just come to offer a proposition for those who have access to this game. It's very rare, you see. And I would like to procure it. Unfortunately, I was unable to pre-purchase it due to some...unfortunate events in my life."

Still in my fighting stance, I replied in the same voice as before, "I really don't care what you offer us, we aren't giving this game up. Just as you said, it is very rare." His eyes narrowed at my reply. It was very apparent that this man was not expecting to being told 'no'. I could almost feel the frustration coming from him, which did absolutely nothing toward getting me out of my stance.

Tyler, being the mediator he was, almost gave the guy his copy; saying that I can just play by myself. I shot that down immediately with my usual counter of needing back-up. This awarded me with a severe look from the blue eyes behind the glasses, the man then turned and disappeared back into the shadows without another word.

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**AN: Ok...so this is the end of Chapter one. I couldn't think of what else to add...shut up. I'm trying here, this is my first story. So anyway, I'll be working on Chapter two now, and I'll try to get it posted this week. Please review and educate me on my mistakes or achievements. Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: ****sorry it took so long, but here is CH 2. I'll try to get CH 3 a little faster, I promise! Thanks for reading and I hope that you enjoy my story. Please review!**

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Chapter Two: Day One

After another short car ride, we finally turned into the familiar suburban neighborhood. The houses all looked pretty much the same, as in every neighborhood. The only differentiation between the other neighborhoods and this one...well...let's just say my parents aren't poor. The houses around me were all two and a half or two stories high with a basement, some fancier than others, but none too outlandish. Heading down the curvy, main road, I glanced to my right at the man-made lake in the center of the subdivision. A fountain had been installed while I was gone, and was spewing water up into the air in every direction. Green shrubs, grass and trees completed the scenic area of my childhood.

We took a left turn onto the road which held the house I still call home. Turning into the driveway of my parents' house. I practically tucked and rolled from the car, almost forgetting to take my seatbelt off. I pulled the back door open and grasped my copy of SAO. I was so excited to finally get ready to play.

"Tyler, come on! Let's go!" I had already made it halfway down the sidewalk to the wooden front door. He was still rummaging through the back of his car, gathering his things. Tyler made a half-assed attempt at spitting out an insult, which I laughed at, then followed me into the two and a half story, white house. After opening the door, I looked to my right out of habit. My Dad's office, my room, my big brother's room, and a guest room. This house held many memories for me, but that room in particular was rather important. I kept walking further into the house, Tyler having already walked up the stairs into the loft above me. I walked under the archway into my parent's main room. "You want anything from the kitchen before we log out of life for a couple hours, we might get hungry IRL," I reasoned, wandering to the left side of the living area, walking around the furnature in the room.

"Huh? Oh no. I'm good," I could hear Tyler mumble from upstairs. He seemed to be engrossed in the SAO Guidebook.

"Ok, nevermind then, I'll eat when you do," I said, turning around and walking up the stairs to the loft. The carpeted stairs led up to a landing, pausing on it, I could see up into the loft where Tyler was gazing with wonder at the Guidebook, awaiting my arrival so we could play. I couldn't hold in my excitement any longer, I sprinted up the stairs and practically dived over the leather couch between me and my best friend. He looked up and me just once, picking up his NerveGear and placed the helmet-like device on his head.

I followed his example, putting my own NerveGear on. The device's default Heads Up Display, or HUD, automatically clicked into view when I had it fully strapped on. I could see the time in the upper left-hand corner. The battery level was full and shown on the upper right-hand corner. Not much to it, until I gave the start up command.

"Link Start!," Tyler and I nearly shouted at the same time. A flash of light from the HUD insued, beginning the start-up process. Once my senses were all confirmed to be linked into the system, a swirl of blue light overcame my view, followed by a small room that allowed me to customize my avatar. I tend to make my characters look as close to me as possible, so I put in my medium length; sandy blond hair, dark brown eyes, narrow; athletic stature, and pale skin. "There we go!" I thought, looking over my avatar, "That looks about as close as I'm gonna get."

The words "ARE YOU READY?" appeared, floating in front of me. I touched the blue circle, and another bit of floating text appeared, "NAME YOUR AVATAR", and a keyboard replaced the letters. I typed in my stock MMO name, clicked another blue circle, and another flash of blue flared around me. "WELCOME TO SWORD ART ONLINE!"

I spawned in a courtyard-type area, surrounded by other players spawning in. I glanced around, seeking out Tyler. We had previously planned to meet up in the spawn area, so I knew he would be here, looking for me too. So I took in my surroundings. The courtyard was completely surrounded by buildings, with only a few exits. I made a quick choice that Tyler and I wouldn't stay here long, I don't like having a severe lack of exit routes. Just then, a message popped up in front of me.

"Rilos, I assumed this was the name you used, and there are way too many people for me to look through. Where are you? -Tobias"

The message was from Tyler, he was brilliant! Of course he would know me well enough to know that I would use 'Rilos' for my character name. Just like I knew 'Tobias' was his go-to name. I touched his name and pulled up his character info panel, adding him as a friend and inviting him to a party.

"Tobias, meet me just outside the Northern side of the courtyard. I don't like it in here. -Rilos" I sent the message and headed North.

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**AN: What do you guys think the flock's avatar names should be? I could make them just Max, Iggy, Fang, Angel, Gazzy and Nudge if that's what y'all want. And if nobody replies, I guess that's what I'll do. Thanks again for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: Welcome to Chapter 3! It was a monster to write, as it accidentally got deleted twice. So let me know how I did, please! I made this one a bit longer to make it a little more interesting for y'all. I'm gonna try to keep that up. Once again, thanks for reading and enjoy this update!**

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**CHAPTER 3: Life is a Game**

"So," I stabbed out with my sword, killing another low-level boar monster. "How many more of these things do we have to kill for the quest?" I asked, grimacing at the unbalanced Beginner's Sword. I really hated that I couldn't choose my starting weapon, that sword was weak and bulky. And somehow Tobias managed to get rare loot right of the bat, as usual. I glanced over at him to see how well he was fairing, and was not surprised to see that he was taking on three boars by himself.

"The quest requires that we get thirty-five total kills. We have eighteen," He blocked a charging boar with his new, rare shield named 'Aegis', and finished it off with his newest sword skill. I rolled my eyes at his luck.

"How do you always manage to get the good loot at the beginning of the game?" I muttered to myself as I did a quick assessment of our situation. We were in the middle of an open field, with several level 3 boar spawns in a circle around us. It was an excellent location for this quest. We still had to kill sixteen more boars for the quest that Tyler, er...Tobias, had noticed on our way out of the spawn location. The plains we were on completely surrounded the Town of Beginnings, which was to the South of where Tobias and I were currently fighting. To our North was a forest, which we decided to avoid until we reached at least level 8, and we were only at level 5 each.

The boars didn't cause us too many issues once we were two levels higher, but the sheer number of them made it difficult for me to only fight one at a time. As a DPS player, I tended to stay out of the battle; but this blasted sword forced me to get up close and personal with these beasts. Luckily, Tobias plays as a tank, and was able to pull them all off of me when I was too overwhelmed.

Two more of the boars spawned in behind me, making grunting noises and pawing at the ground. I spun around and deflected the first charge with the side of my blade, shoving the boar off course. The next boar was quick to take its turn attacking me. Luckily, I knew how to dodge, and rolled to my right. Thrusting my sword out in front of me, I practically sliced the monster in half as it ran passed me, shattering it into little blue shards. The first boar was now to my left, charging at me again. I got into my fighting stance, feet shoulder-width apart, shoulders squared on my target and my eyes on the weapon of my opponent (in this case tusks of my oppenent). But, just before it was able to reach me, it was impaled by a curved scimitar, weilded by a warrior covered from head to toe in black and grey iron armor.

"And that makes thirty-five! Let's get back to that lady and get the Sol and armor peice," Tobias said, oblivious to my accusing glare. He knew he had stolen my kill with his overpowered gear.

"Lucky little prick..." I mumbled to myself as we pulled out our teleport crystals that we had both gotten as loot from earlier kills. Tobias glanced over at me, grinning just before he teleported. "Town of Beginnings," I stated, holding out my own crystal, which burst, surrounding me in shards that began to rapidly grow in brightness until all I could see was white.

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We've been playing for about six hours, I realized as we looked over the items for sale at a weapon store in the Town of Beginnings. "Tobias, maybe we should log out. Get some food," I glanced up at him from the halberd I was examining. He was looking over the swords, trying (and failing) to find a sword more powerful than the one he earned. He looked up at me and laughed a bit.

"It is getting to be about that time, huh?" He said, checking the time on his HUD. "Do you want to get off so you can eat?" As always, he was leaving the choice to me.

Sighing, I shrugged and shook my head. "Not yet. I'm gonna buy some new armor to match this," I gestured to the dark brown and green chestplate I had equipped, and placed the halberd back on the weapons rack. "And I have to decide on a weapon to use since a bow simply isn't a thing in this world. Then, we can go eat." We nodded at each other in agreement and I followed in suit as he walked away from the weapon stand and further down the street, which was lined with stores, as we looked for a good armor shop.

The street was overly crowded with the rest of the new players, looking for new weapons and armor. People of all shapes and sizes surrounded us, as we pushed our way through the crowd. We didn't stop to talk to any of them, because we knew that they simply weren't what they seemed to be. We pushed our way through the crowds and noticed a store named "The Blackened Anvil". Tobias pointed at it without turning to check if I noticed, and together, we entered the store to take a look around.

"These look promising," Tobias said, pointing to an armor set that matched my armor almost exactly, the only difference being the cost of the peices.

"Man, that stuff is pretty good. But I don't know that I can afford something like that," I opened my menu to check my monitary value. "1500 Sol," I sighed, "in order for me to get that I need another 1600. Some things just aren't meant to be." Sighing again, I turned away from the relatively powerful armor peices. I walked across the wooded floor, ignoring the NPC shopkeep's constant, looped conversations from behind the desk at the back of the store.

The layout of the store was fairly simple. Glass cases lined the single room, filled with armor and armor sets. The armor peices Tobias mentioned were on display in the center of the room. My back was to the center of the room, and the NPC merchant was to my right.

I opened my menu with a swipe of my hand, and clicked on my inventory to see how much money I had compared to how much the, much less impressive, armor was priced. I sighed, but just before I could click the 'buy' button, a notification appeared on the top right of my HUD. 'Tobias would like to trade. Accept?'

My eyes narrowed and I turned to see Tobias giving me a look I knew very well. It was the 'don't argue, just do' face. I touched the yes button only to see my inventory populate with the brown armor set from the display case. I gasped and glared at my best friend.

"Oh you might as well quit shooting daggers at me and wear it. It's free!" Tyler exlaimed. I rolled my eyes and followed his advice, trying to forget the amount of money he spent for something stupid. Looking at myself in the reflection of the glass, I looked pretty freaking awesome. The armor was a light metal-leather blend. My chestplate was a dark brown color, accented by the lighter green leather under the metal. Instead of a helmet, I wore a brown hood, to match the metal. The dark green-brown mixture made for a cool camoflauge effect, I had to admit...I really appreciated Tobias' gift.

"Thanks man," I muttered in defeat. "Now, let's go find a nice weapon sh-" The door suddenly flew open with a bang, allowing a short blond haired kid to run/stumble into the shop as the taller blond and wide-eyed boy nearly pushed him into the room and they both ran to the nearest armor casing. I nearly scoffed as I recognized them as noobs (new MMO players) immediately. I knew it was bound to get loud in here, noobs travel in packs.

As expected, more players walked in the door. Quickly following the tall blond was a very excited girl with dark brown eyes and mocha colored skin.

"Ohmygoodnessthisplaceisso" she took a quick breath and continued her nearly incomprehensible sentence. The pause was minute,"oooweird!" Another girl followed her in, a brunette who walked very cautiously.

"Nudge, slow down and talk normal people. I can't understand you when you talk so fast," she said, eyeing the dark skinned girl with a look of exhausted annoyance mixed with fondness, and followed her to meet up with the two blond boys who were discussing armor types.

Tobias, who had moved over to my side of the store, glanced over at me in a way that said 'let's get out of here.' I agreed with an enthusiastic nod and started to head toward the door. Before I could even take a step, a blond girl with big blue eyes walked in, escorted by another brunette.

This one was more confident than the last, and had a very protective look about her as she glanced around the store and back at the door where another boy was slowly making his way in. The blackclad, dark haired boy slid into the room and took a protective posture behind the odd group of new players.

I tugged on Tobias' arm and practically ran from the building and gasped out about stupid noobs. Tobias, who followed quickly behind me, nodded and opened his mouth to say something.

He was interrupted by a loud noise, almost like a bell, that rang out three times. Just after the last bell rang out, a white light burst in front of me. I was teleporting, but why?

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**AN: So...the Flock has been introduced...sorta. And yes, I did add a new member, just roll with it. Thanks for reading and please review to let me know how I did! I need feedback to make this story better.**


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: Ok, so this chapter is mostly for people with less knowledge of SAO. It recaps the meeting with Akihiko Kayaba and gives you an insight into the bond between Rilos and Tobias. It gets a little confusing at times with Rilos changing what he calles Tobias. Sometimes it's Tobias and others it's Tyler. Just remember that Rilos isn't used to calling his best friend Tobias, and when things get really stressful, he tends to not care. So anyway, thanks for reading and don't forget to review!**

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**CHAPTER 4: This Game is Life**

As the white teleportation light faded, I quickly took in my surroundings. We had been teleported back to the courtyard, and we didn't seem to be the only ones...I didn't have an exact count, but it certainly looked like every player in Sword Art Online had been teleported to this exact spot all at once.

"Wha-? What's going on? Forced teleportation?" Tobias' voice came from behind me, and I turn to face him.

"Maybe it's a scripted event? You know...for the opening cerimony?" His eyes narrowed, but he shrugged. I turned away from him, looking for exit routes. "We need to get closer to the exits. I don't like this large amount of people bunched up in one spot. Let's move." I checked behind me to be sure that he heard, and saw him nod at me. So, trying to make as little disturbance as possible, we made our way from the center of the courtyard to the West exit.

A loud ding noise made me stop in my tracks. Looking over, Tobias did as well, and we looked up at the origin of the noise. The sky had a large red shape in the sky, "WARNING" I could barely make it out, but I didn't really need to try very hard to, because the shape started to multiply until the red announcements covered the sky.

Just as everyone started looking up at the red-covered, virtual sky, a red liquid began to pour from in between the announcements. The liquid, looking abut as viscous as blood, began to pool in a central area just above the buildings. As the blood-like liquid poured, the pool began to shape itself into a large person. More of a cloak with hands, actually.

"Wow...itense event. That thing is huge!" I said with wide eyes, looking over at Tobias who was pale. "You ok?" He just shook his head and kept staring at the figure in the sky.

"Attention players." The booming voice came from the large red cloak. "Welcome to my world." I found it a little odd that he didn't say 'welcome to sword art online' or 'welcome to this new world' his distinct use of the word 'my' kind of stood out. But I just let it roll and I shrugged.

"My name is Akihiko Kayaba. As of this moment, I am the only person able to control this world."

"Wait...what? I don't think that's how this works...Tyler? Hey, what's up man?" He was on his main menu. He looked at me, fear controlling his features.

"The logout button...its-"

"I'm sure you've already noticed that the logout button is missing from the main menu." Kayaba said from under the cloak. My eyes widened even more as I opened my own menu to confirm that. The button was indeed missing.

"But this is not a defect in the game. I repeat...this is not a defect in the game, but a key feature of Sword Art Online."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing...we couldn't logout? I grabbed Tobias' hand and dragged him the rest of the way to the West exit. We had to get out of there...

"You cannot log out of SAO of your own will, and no one on the outside can shut down or remove the NerveGear." Gasps came from all over the crowd, and even a scream or two.

"Should this be attempted, the transmitter inside the NerveGear will emit powerful microwaves, destroying your brain and thus ending your life," My hand reached for my blade out of frustration, only to realise it wasn't there. I clentched my fists.

"Unfortunately, there have been several instances where players' friends and families have ignored my warnings and attempted to forcibly remove the NerveGear. As a result, 213 players have exited permanently, from both Aincrad and the real world."

I was shaking with anger. How could he? How could he do this to innocent people? Video games aren't supposed to be like this!

"As you can see," Kayaba lifted his hand, bringing up several media outlet screens, floating around him, "news organizations across the world are reporting on this situation, including the multiple deaths. Thus, you can assume that the danger of a NerveGear being removed has been reduced." He lowered his hand, allowing the screens to disappear.

"So, I would like you all to focus on clearing the game. But be sure to keep this in mind," pausing for a moment he continued, "there is no longer any function to revive someone within the game. The instant your hit points drop to zero, your avatars will vanish forever and simultaneously, your brains will be destroyed by the NerveGear."

Jesus...I couldn't tell if he was serious, people were starting to freak out at this point. Even if it was just all a joke, or an event planned by the programmers, it's just cruel to do that to people. I vowed to myself, just then, that I would not let Tyler die. He and I would beat this game, against all odds and get out of here.

"You are presently on the lowest floor of Aincrad, floor one. If you make your way through the dungeon and defeat the Floor Boss, you may advanceto the next level. Defeat the boss on floor 100 and you will clear the game," if he had a face, I imagine it would have been smug. "Now then, finally, I've provided you all with a present in your item storage. Please see for yourselves."

Eyes narrowed, I swipped my hand in front of me, opening my menu, and touched the button for my inventory. An item labeled 'mirror' was awaiting me. I raised an eyebrow and tapped it. A small, handheld mirror appeared in my hand. I saw my avatar in the mirror, and glanced up at Tobias who had done the same. I shrugged just before a flash of light surrounded me, and I blinked in confusion.

"What just happened?" I looked down at my slender hands and back up where Tobias had been, and saw my best friend as I knew him. Black, curly hair that was not much longer than mine, bright green eyes that hid a burden he was cursed to carry, a stocky build and a moderate height. "Tyler? Why are you Tyler, not Tobias?" He was giving me the same look of confusion that I was probably giving him. Looking around, everybody had changed.

"Right now, you must all be wondering, 'why?' why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and the NerveGear, do such a thing?" No shit that's what we were all thinking! What kind of person kills people like this?

"My goal has already been achieved. I created Sword Art Online for one reason...to create this world and meddle in it...and now, all is complete." He seemed to have a satisfactory sigh and continued his rant, "This ends the tutorial for the official Sword Art Online launch. I wish you luck players." The large cloak Kayaba was hiding under vanished, along with the man behind the mask.

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**AN: One more thing to add, the flock is coming in next chapter, so brace yourselves! Thanks again for reading, and please review! Bye for now!**


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Chapter 5! Thanks for reading, guys! Please review and correct me when I royally screw up, kay? Kay. **

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**CHAPTER 5: What the Flock?**

Tobias and I ran through the West exit of the courtyard as quickly as we could, turning North at the first alleyway we saw. We had to get to the next town as soon as possible so we could get strong quickly. First town quests are good and all, but they don't do much for you at a certain level. Now that we were level 5, the idea of staying in this town is downright laughable after the events in the opening cerimony.

Running down the alley, the sounds of our footsteps echoing through the quiet, we kept an eye on our maps to gauge our distance to the North Gate of the Town of Beginnings. The sound of arguing made me slow my run into a slow, paced walk. I wanted to avoid a fight if at all possible. I threw my right fist in the air, curving my elbow at a 90 degree angle, signalling Tobias to stop. I halted my walk and listened.

"We should fly away now, the risk of getting into confrontation here is too high! Who cares if they see us?" The voice was female, sounding full of leadership and fear.

"Max, trust me, letting the players in this game see our wings is a seriously bad move. To beat a game like this, we need allies. And we can't get those if people use us for our flight, or try to kill us out of jealousy." A boy's voice retorted, "We should walk from here to the next town over. Iggy and I are strong enough to protect all of us from the monsters between here and there."

The voices were coming from just ahead, I glanced back at Tobias to make sure he had heard the conversation, and gave him another hand sign signaling to move foward at a normal walking pace.

"Gazzy! Allies? Really? Who do you propose we go talk to? 'Oh hi! We are just a flock of noobs in this game, wanna help us? we _totally_ don't have wings.'" A different female voice responded to the boy. I stopped, crouched in the shadow next to a building on the left side of the alley and motioned for Tobias to join me.

The bickering continued as Tobias crouched next to me, "What's up?" he whispered in the low voice we use when stealthing.

"I recognized the second girl's voice. These people are the group from the armor shop before...I guess they have some veterans in their group after all..." I replied in the same hushed voice. He nodded, trusting that I could remember the voice of a girl I had heard one sentence from. "Should we approach them? If what they say about having a flying skill is true...they could make for good friends..."

"Or maybe they are just crazy and we should avoid them at all costs," Tobias whispered in a firm voice. "But it's up to you. They can't hurt us in this safe zone anyway." He remained crouched just behind me, awaiting my command.

"Let's go say hi."

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The flock stood in a small open area surrounded by fences on the side of an alleyway, The Gasman, Sky and Maximum were arguing about how to best proceed after recieving some very disturbing news. It seemed that Iggy and Gazzy were correct about ending up in a video game, and the flock's worst fears were realized when Akihiko Kayaba, creator of Sword Art Online, confirmed that the game was a trap.

Fang stood on the edge of the clearing, silently watching the argument, awaiting the group's decision. His black clothes rendering him nearly invisible against the shaded building, he watched as Nudge and Iggy discussed the wonders of matching colors on the other side of the clearing.

Suddenly one of the side gates opened and two players entered the opening, Fang noted the way they held themselves. The first to come in was a shorter athletic kind of boy, he couldn't have been any older than 17, with a young, narrow face and light brown hair. His eyes, dark brown, glanced around at the flock in a calculating kind of way. The man behind him was a larger, stocky person with dark black hair and peircing green eyes. He stood in a defensive stance behind the boy, almost like a bodyguard.

"Hail, friends! I am Rilos and this is my brother Tobias. We heard some yelling, we just wanted to make sure everybody was alright," he grinned and glanced around awkwardly as the flock stared at him. He crossed his arms and leaned to his right, "Don't everybody talk at once, I only have so much brainpower." He laughed and the man behind him tensed up.

"Hello, Rilos. Tobias. We could actually use some advice," Angel stepped forward from behind Max and approached the boy. Max took a step forward, and opened her mouth to protest. "It's fine Max. Something about this guy tells me he doesn't want to hurt us. Besides, this kinda solves our situation," Angel turned to look at Rilos, who had raised a brow in curiousity, "what would you do if you had a powerful, unique skill? Hide it, or use it when you needed to?"

Max stepped forward and got in front of Angel, "Ok, no. That's too much. We don't even know these people, sweety. How can we trust them?" Max never took her eyes from the Rilos boy, wary of his intentions.

"Well, little one, I would probably hide it. There are many people in the gaming community who would seek to abuse that skill. So whatever skill it is that y'all hide, keep it that way." The boy said, grinning past Max at Angel. Gazzy laughed in response to Rilos' comment.

"See, Max? I told you. I like this guy. He knows what's up!" Gazzy pushed passed Max and held out his hand. "My name is Gasman, _the_ Gasman, but you can call me Gazzy. How do you feel about explosives?" Rilos' grin grew larger as he took Gazzy's hand and shook it firmly.

"Chemical or Atomic?" Rilos asked, causing Gazzy and Iggy to widen their gazes at the boy. Fang noticed that the boy seemed to be hiding something, becuase the man behind him was still in a tense postition. But before the discussion about explosions could go any further, Fang revealed himself from the shadows.

* * *

"What do you want, kid?" A guy dressed in black slid into exsistance from the shadows, causing me to flinch. _How did I not see him? _His glare was peircing, and his dark eyes were unyeilding.

"Kid? Really? I'm 19, guy. And I _want_ to help, just like I said," I crossed my arms as well and narrowed my eyes at the calculating shadow. "What makes you think otherwise, shadowboy?" Tobias stirred behind me and I heard a whisper in my ear.

"Don't. We don't know what they are capable of, and we don't need enemies here. Be smart and get one of them to add us and let's book it. We've already lost time." I nodded in agreement and looked back to the blond kid, Gazzy.

"Gasman, was it?" The kid nodded at me,"why don't you add Tobias and me as friends? If you guys ever need help, send me a message, ok? We are both very strong fighters and willing to help."

Gazzy nodded, despite the girl, Max's, and shadowboy's glares; Tobias and I turned away and left the way we came. Just before we did so, I turned back and winked at Max. "See ya, Maxi."

* * *

**AN: If the Max Ride characters seem a little OOC, it's because they are. I'm pairing a couple of the Flock members with some of my characters, and in order for that to make sense I had to increase the Flock's ages. They are all four years older. So the oldest members are 19. If that's too weird, I'm sorry.**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: Sorry this took so long. I don't even have the excuse of it being a long chapter, I just lost interest for a while. But here it is! Enjoy...I hope.**

* * *

**CHAPTER 6: Another New Friend**

Tobias was silent on the trip to the gate; he walked on my right, leading the way by a few paces. I knew he didn't approve of the way I had handled that situation, but I didn't care. I wasn't exactly known for thinking before I act. I realized that it was a problem, but never took any steps to prevent it.

"Hey, Tobias?" He grunted in response, looking over his left shoulder at me, "We never did go buy me a weapon, you know? I know it's a waste of time but..." I cut off mid-sentence when he paused and turned to face me.

"It's not a waste. A weapon will keep you alive, and that is more important than ever now. We might have some powerful enemies now, thanks to you, and I have to keep your dumbass alive," he growled the sentence at me, glaring the whole time. "Now, what kind of weapon do you want?"

I glanced downward, I hated disappointing people...my bestfriend least of all...

"Listen, man...I'm-"

"What kind of weapon, Ryan?"

I thought about it as I felt a spike in my blood pressure. I hated it when he threw all of the blame on me, he could have said something! When he let me do all the talking, he should've known that I would have said something stupid.

"Throwing knives and a shortsword I guess." The sentence was kind of spat out, usually when Tyler and I fight like this, we just get off the games and give each other a while to cool off; seeing as logging out wasn't an option, however, we simply dealt with it.

Following his lead, I walked in the direction of the nearest weapon shop. Suddenly, a movement in the shadows brought my attention to the right. I know we were in a safe zone, but it still creeped me out, so I blew a soft whistle, signaling Tobias to halt all movement. I slowly crept toward the shaded area in the alley to our right. My «Hiding» skill was slowly becoming my favorite.

* * *

Not sure what to expect, I poked my head around the corner, with Tobias just behind me. About halfway down the street I saw two players beginning a duel. I couldn't believe it! The game only just started, not to mention the death penalty! How were these guys already fighting?

The closest player to us wore a faded grey cloak and weilded a single blade, while the other wore a bright green set of shining metal armor and weilded a sword and sheild combination. 9...8...7...the timer counted down from 10, the players took their stances and prepared for battle.

3...2...1...The counter dropped to 0 and the player in green leaped into battle, slashing away with his sword at his competitor who moved with blinding speed to block all of the attacks, returning none of his own.

"Can we be done with this foolishness?" The grey clad warrior's scratchy voice echoed through the alleyway, making me cringe. That man was not friendly. The attacking player growled and increased the brutalilty of his attacks, striking with all of his might, only to be promptly blocked by his opponent. Finally the fighter in grey slashed out in rapid succession, swiftly dominating the other player, leaving only a small portion of health left.

The 'victory' banner appeared over the head of the winner, who skulked away, disappearing into the shadows. The player in green stood, hanging his head in shame, and walked toward the other end of the alley. Once he too, disappeared, Tobias motioned me foward and we continued on our path. Unsure of how to comprehend what we just witnessed, we stayed quiet until we pushed passed the door into a weapon's store just inside the city boundries. "The Bladed Edge" it was called, and true to it's name, every peice of weaponry in the building was bladed. The walls were lined with swords, daggers, and knives of all kinds. Our feud immediately forgotten, we fanboy'd over basically every deadly peice of forgery.

"This one is wavy! Great for blocking enemy strikes without using a shield, but this one over here is double edged for multiple strikes!" If it wouldn't have killed me, I would've been rolling in the blades and hugging them close like stuffed animals. Tobias was wide eyed over the wide variety of broadswords and greatswords, he loved the double-edged swords for the look and fashion of medievalness.

Eventually we calmed down and began to seriously consider my new weapons, and our gaze turned to the throwing knives. I knew I wanted a sheath for holding at least ten kunai knives, no less than ten shuriken and twenty senbon needles.

After sifting through multiple bags, sheaths and holsters, I finally found one that caught my fancy. It was a fitted sash-type sheath that wrapped from my left shoulder down to my right hip. I tried it on and glanced down at myself.

"How does this look?" I asked, twisting my head in as many angles as I could to try and get a good view of my upper body. Tobias looked at me and shrugged, saying that he doesn't really care about looks as long as the equipment is efficient. After I looked down at the price, I walked to the vendor and purchased the sash, filling it with the weapons, and turned my attention to the swords. I needed a weapon that I could use quickly and efficiently without sacrificing too much power.

"Tobias, I need your opinion on this," He walked over from his position near the broadswords and glanced over the options, "I was thinking maybe this one," I said, gesturing toward a sword named 'Wolf's Fang', "It has excellent accuracy and stealth capabilities, as well as decent speed and power."

After a small amount of deliberation, we decided to buy 'Wolf's Fang' and continue to the next town.

Following Tobias to the front door, I stepped in front of him to pull it open; and Tobias stepped outside with me shortly behind him. We caught a blur of black as a player ran passed us and on toward the gate.

"Tobias, you think that was shadowboy from earlier?" He glanced at me, and I nodded. We took off after the player in black at a slightly slower pace than he used. We didn't want him to know we were tailing him, we needed some information.

* * *

Four hours.

We followed this guy for FOUR hours. He finally stopped to take a break so Tobias and I took a crouching position and began surveillance. It was apparent fairly quickly that this young man in front of us was not one of the noobs from before. He had a very concentrated look in his trained grey eyes as he studied the map.

"What's he doing out here alone? Doesn't he understand that death is permanent here?" I quietly whispered to Tobias, who just nodded and kept his eyes on the player.

"You might as well come out, I know you have been following me," Looking up, I saw the grey eyes staring intently in my direction. Not exactly on me, so he didn't know where I was exactly, but he did know we were here.

Sighing, I stood up and motioned for Tobias to do the same. I swiftly examined the crouching player, who was obviously very experienced. His eyes, calmly shifted between the two of us.

"You guys must be pretty determined to have followed me all the way out here. What's your deal?" His piercing eyes narrowed. I immediately shifted to my "charisma mode," thinking that I could smooth this over with just my silver tongue. Tobias, of course, grimaced and took a defensive stance.

"Well, you are certainly better than I expected! I don't think I've met a player with a detection skill high enough to find my brother and I," I grinned at the black-clad player, who simply shrugged and smirked. I adjusted my posture as I walked toward him, gesturing for Tobias to follow suit, I stretched out my hand for a shake. "My name is Rilos, and this is Tobias," I said, nodding my head toward my best friend.

Shaking my hand, the young man introduced himself as Kirito, asking for the second time why we were following him.

"A simple mistake, my friend. We thought you were someone else, so we followed you in order to gather information, once it was obvious you weren't the person we thought you were, we followed simply out of curiosity. Why _are_ you out here all alone? Solo gaming isn't the best survival strategy, you know." His eyes slightly narrowed, then returned to normal as he replied.

"Working in too large a group is just as dangerous. The masses make stupid choices and people end up dead. I prefer to be alone so as to not be the cause of those deaths." I could see Tobias nodding in agreement to my right, and I rolled my eyes. A high pitched binging noise pulled my attention to my message menu.

"Rilos, it's Gazzy. Max and Sky don't know that I'm sending you this but I think you can be trusted, and Iggy agrees. You saw how Angel trusted you and if she trusts you, well let's just say she's a very good judge of character. Anyway, my point is, we have a problem and you guys are the only two we know in this game. Please help."

I relayed the message to Tobias, and began to gather the few packs of food we had retrieved to snack on while chatting with Kirito. I stood up and nodded at the young solo player, "Sorry again for following you all creepy like, but we gotta go." He laughed and said that he understood.

"Think you will need any help? I'm pretty good with a sword, you know," Kirito remarked. I shook my head and explained that Tobias and I could probably handle whatever it was. After shaking Kirito's hand once more, we took off toward the East. Even Tobias knew that I couldn't resist helping these new players, not when the stakes were so high, so all he could do is follow me and be my calming voice of reason. Good thing too, I was gonna need it.

* * *

**AN: Ok...so I'll work on the next chapter. I promise. No promises that it will be done quickly though. Just bare with me here, and don't forget to review. I need all the help I can get! Thanks!**


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